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Calling all aspiring scientific writers

Our Mentor Scheme will offer personal help with scientific writing to raise the abilities, confidence and research output of our alumni.

The TBA is launching an exciting scheme to help you to develop your career, win funding and get your research work published. To complement our existing follow-up support work, we have developed a more formal way to improve your scientific writing skills.

If you have small grant proposals, draft manuscripts for publication, or need guidance with preparing PhD concept notes and other written material, this scheme is for you. We will put you in touch with senior academics and /or peer reviewers that have interests in your subject area and can offer support, through acting as an ‘e-tutor', to progress your materials to completion. Administered initially from the TBA Cambridge office, any such request will be assessed and passed to a mentor with relevant expertise to initiate one-to one support in this process.

The scheme will be open to all TBA alumni.

Please send your manuscripts to Clive Nuttman at cvn22@cam.ac.uk
or Anthony Kuria at tba-africa@tropical-biology.org

TBA alumni at Student Conference

The 12th Student Conference in Conservation Science was a resounding success. Organised jointly by TBA, Cambridge University's Zoology Department and the RSPB, the conference brought together 200 conservation students from 63 nations. The conference highlighted innovative and inspirational examples of how young researchers develop and test scientific ideas that make a real difference to conservation policy and practice.

Among the participants were 29 TBA alumni. Three gave talks and 14 displayed posters. Legi Sam from Papua New Guinea (10/3 Borneo) asked “Are butterflies expanding their altitudinal ranges in Papua New Guinea?”; Aida Cuni Sanchez from Spain (05/4 Kirindy) talked about assessing the impact of climate change on Madagascar's endemic baobabs; and Gilbert Baase Adum from Ghana (10/1 Amani) spoke about the recovery of forest amphibian communities after logging. Gilbert was one of four TBA alumni to get prestigious Miriam Rothschild Internships enabling them to spend up to a month with a UK-based conservation NGO or University department after the conference. The other TBA alumni to get internships were Chabi Djagoun from Benin (09/4 Kirindy), Tokiniaina Hobinjatovo from Madagascar (08/2 Kibale) and Bruktwawit Mahamued from Ethiopia (07/4 Kirindy). Joseph Daniel Onoja from Nigeria was one of three alumni who had participated in TBA's Specialist Training Programme. As a result he obtained a grant for some research about which he displayed a poster at this year's conference.

Filipa Palmeirim with her poster (left) and Eleni Foui with her poster (right)

TBA alumni are heroes

A list of “green heroes working for the right kind of environmental change”, published in the UK’s Guardian newspaper includes a TBA alumnus: Matthew Prescott (Kibale, Uganda, 1995). He is the founder of E-day and E-Meters, which encourages people to reduce their energy consumption. The list, compiled by environmental writer George Monbiot, aimed to find 50 green pioneers, people who are making a practical difference but whose work is not yet widely known.

The list is available online at http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/10/green-heroes. Another alumnus, Lily-Arison Rene de Roland, is one of six Disney Conservation Heroes honoured in 2010 for “their extraordinary commitment to conservation”. Lily is National Director of The Peregrine Fund’s Madagascar Project. He re-discovered the Madagascar Pochard, a diving duck thought to be extinct, and established a captive breeding programme to help increase its population. Lily has worked at all levels to help government personnel understand the project initiatives and local communities understand their role in managing their natural resources wisely. Since 2004, Disney has honoured 48 people for their extraordinary conservation efforts around the world, see www.disney.com/conservation.

Simon Musila graduates

Simon Musila has just graduated from Kenyatta University with a Masters degree. What makes his degree unusual is that it was sponsored by the participants on his TBA course in Amani in 2003 who wanted to enable one of their fellow African participants to do a Masters after his TBA course. Called the African Education for Leaders in Conservation (AELC) Masters scholarship, and launched by fellow course participant Nick van de Wiel, this is a great example of how the TBA network continues to function well after the courses have finished.

Simon is now working as Assistant Research Scientist in Mammalogy at the National Museums of Kenya. TBA wishes him the best for his current and future work.

Simon Musila at his graduation ceremony on 2nd July 2010

Unlocking the potential of African Scientists

28th January, Nairobi

The Tropical Biology Association recently met with representatives from the University of Ghana, Makerere University (Uganda), the National Museums of Kenya, Nature Kenya and the Nigeria Conservation Foundation to launch an exciting new project that will develop the research capacity of African environmental scientists. Funded by the ACP Science and Technology Programme, the 3-year project will significantly boost the output of research and publications of scientists in the region, while increasing their profile internationally. This will be achieved through a series of collaborative workshops coupled with follow-up support that will build skills in:

Designing quality research projects and preparing successful funding proposals.
Writing papers for publication in journals and other media where results can be easily accessed by the wider conservation community.
How to communicate with policy makers.

Society of Conservation Biology 2005 Distinguished Service Award

The TBA is a recipient of the Society for Conservation Biology Distinguished Service Award for 2005. This was awarded in recognition for TBA's contribution to the conservation of tropical biodiversity through unique and innovation capacity building and fostering of expertise and support for young conservation biologists. With a membership of 6,000 in 90 countries, and the prestigious journal Conservation Biology, the SCB is regarded as the premier professional society for those seeking to conserve biological diversity. The award was given at the 19th annual meeting of the SCB, held in Brasilia on the 15-19th July 2005.

Annual TBA newsletters

Each year TBA produces a newsletter by our alumni for our alumni providing individual updates; news about TBA itself; and its latest activities; and most importantly articles written by past participants about their TBA course. Below are some previous newsletters that were produced.

Tropical Biology Association

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